Meriden Nursery School Shut Amid Abuse Claims

State Closes Meriden Nursery School That It Says Abused Children

MERIDEN — C Saying children who attended had been physically abused, humiliated and frightened, the state Tuesday closed Linden Nursery School.

Some of the 14 charges the state listed against Linden were that: A learning-disabled child's mouth was taped when he made noises as he tried to speak.

Children were slapped in the face and on the rear for refusing to cooperate with a teacher.

Staff members dragged a child by the arms into a dark hallway and closed the doors in an effort to scare the child.

Staff members required children to eat food that had fallen to the ground, and also took for themselves items from lunches the children had brought to school.

Lauren Lawson, Linden's head teacher and director, spoke with reporters outside the school soon after being served with the state order to close.

Clutching tissues in both hands and trembling slightly, Lawson denied the allegations against her and the school.

"All the allegations are false, and we are looking to be exonerated," Lawson said. "I can't believe this is happening to us." Lawson said that since complaints were taken to the attention of state officials and reported in a local newspaper this month, about 13 of the 20 children enrolled have been removed from the school. Tuesday, about a half-dozen children attended the school.

Meriden police Det. Sgt. Keith McCurdy, head of the youth division and sex crimes unit, said Tuesday evening that the department's investigation is continuing and that officers would speak with state prosecutors to discuss pursuing criminal charges.

The state's case is based on an investigation by the state departments of Health Services and Children and Youth Services.

No one was arrested when the school was closed Tuesday at 3 p.m. Parents who normally pick up their children by 5:30 filtered in after 3 to get their children.

Those who would say anything expressed surprise.

"I know all the women here. I've had no trouble," Jose Santiago

said as he picked up his 3-year-old daughter Amanda. "I don't think it's true." The nursery school, at 46 Gracey Ave., was licensed to Evelyn P. DeRosa when it opened 19 years ago. DeRosa, the mother of Lauren Lawson, was not at the school Tuesday.

Wesley Bell, a day-care licensing supervisor with the state Department of Health, told Lawson to close the school Tuesday. He said outside the school that the evidence against the staff members, whom he declined to name, was obtained from "sworn statements and first-hand observation." Speaking on a small lawn outside the one-story white building with black shutters, Bell said the abuse had taken place during the past 12 months.

"We believe that it is the general practice" at the school to use physical, corporal punishment against the children, Bell said. "We would like to see the center permanently closed." A hearing is scheduled at the department Oct. 10 to determine whether DeRosa's license should be revoked, he said. Bell said parents would be given a list of hot-line telephone numbers and a list of other day-care centers in the city.

If the school is closed permanently, it will be the second that the department has shut in less than a year. In December, the state closed Hildegard's Day Care Center-Nursery School in West Hartford after parents complained about physical abuse of children.

The owner of that nursery school -- Hildegard B. Kralits -- was arrested shortly after the state closed the center. In February, Kralits agreed to accept two years' probation and to pay a $10,000 fine to the state and forfeit her day-care license. Under the agreement, her record will be erased if she successfully completes probation.

Lawson said she began to hear of complaints about Linden shortly after school started this month. Apparently a parent had complained about the school's "time-out" method of disciplining children, Lawson said. A misbehaving child placed on a chair in the back yard of the schooluntil the child regained composure. The parent did not like that system, Lawson said.

Lawson called the allegations "ridiculous." As an example, she cited one state charge alleging that a staff member "dressed as a witch to frighten children who would not sleep." Lawson said staff members would play-act a nursery rhyme about a princess, a prince and a witch at nap time, and the acting was not meant to frighten the children.

Lawson emerged from the school to speak with reporters at the coaxing of Roberta Dolan, a parent who drove to the school to offer Lawson support after hearing about the closing on her car radio.

"It's really upsetting to me," said Dolan, who had a child at Linden several years ago. She said she hoped the public did not form opinions about the school until all the facts were known.